[Peetwo]

MH370 search fleet to be halved as hopes of success fade

Ben Sandilands | Jun 03, 2015 4:45PM |


Why the crew working tow fish from GO Phoenix don't often step onto the deck for a break

The original four ship sea floor search fleet looking for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is about to be halved to two.

The latest search update found on the JACC and ATSB sites strikes a much more resigned tone that the cautiously optimistic commentary that came from the meeting between Malaysia, China and Australia in April at which it was agreed to double the search zone area if nothing was found by the end of May.

The imminent withdrawal of GO Phoenix at the end of its current contract means the task of using deep sea towed side scanning sonar devices will fall to two Fugro Discovery company vessels, and with bad southern winter weather taken into account and 50,000 square kilometres out of an enlarged 120,000 square kilometres area left to be searched, progress will be very slow.

Unless of course, the wreckage is at last found.

The latest bulletin segues into the bad news, burying the message that if nothing is found within the enlarged area, then it’s all over.

In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, Governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area.

Amid all of the briefings that were captured by media reports in April during the tripartite search effort discussions, it was never put that bluntly.

The photo at the top of the page does however illustrate how bad the conditions in the enlarged search zone are expected to be during the southern hemisphere winter.  Those two blue shipping containers house the workplaces used for conducting and maintaining the tow fish operations from the wave battered deck of soon to withdraw GO Phoenix.

 

I thought these comments from Anton on Ben's blog post (above) was worth regurgitating... :

[*] Anton Szautner
Posted June 4, 2015 at 1:56 pm | Permalink
I would never have thought it possible that a disaster of this magnitude – yes, involving lives lost – could ever be topped by such extraordinarily evil secret-keeping and feigned competence on the part of the players in the aftermath.

It boggles any attempt at comprehension.

One may confidently assume that the people responsible for the various aspects of this debacle will never rest easy to the end of their days; to these, we might suggest they might as well come clean, the sooner the better.

If not, they can try it (and us) the hard way and attempt to keep their back ends covered. The entire world will continue to watch and be constantly ready to remind the principals involved that truth has a nasty and robust habit of hatching out into the bright glare of public examination, whether anyone likes it or not.

In the end, the effort required to keep things under wraps becomes a measure not of strategic cleverness, but of abject stupidity…and entry into the hallowed halls of history of a despicable flavor of character only honesty can ever hope to clean.

[*] Anton Szautner
Posted June 4, 2015 at 2:00 pm | Permalink
Ditto Simon Gunson: “The truth is there was no credible investigation.”

[*]
I hate to say it but there was a few of us on here who predicted this outcome when it was announced that the Dolan led ATSB had been put in charge of the MH370 SIO deep sea underwater search -  e.g:

P7 - "..As slowly, but inevitably, the world arrives at the same conclusion..  How is the world to view an ATSB with a track record like Australia's? when credibility is all.   I will not mention the politicians who believed, categorically, that the ATSB under Dolan could solve the puzzle.."

Sheikh - "...Beaker certainly does not fit the bill. He's not capable of investigating a coffee spill on the flight deck, yet alone a fatal prang! ICAO WHERE ARE YOU? DO YOU HAVE FAITH IN THE ATSB???? I don't, nor does any qualified accident investigator world wide. I've spoken to the heads of the NTSB and FAA and they are literally rolling around the floor in laughter every time our clown Beaker opens his mouth..."
MTF...P2